Upside-down Christmas trees are all the rage for 2017

Would you buy an upside-down Christmas tree? Social media is buzzing over a hot decorating trend, but the inverted trees are actually nothing new. (@SweetT_Terri/Twitter, Charlie Ryan/Facebook)

wpvi

Monday, December 18, 2017

Could 2017 be the year that we finally flip Christmas on its head? The internet is buzzing over upside-down Christmas trees, one of the hottest trends in holiday decorating this year.

The premise is simple. While many upside-down trees are hung from the ceiling, others are situated to stand attached to a base on the floor. The inverted trees are decorated largely the same way as their right-side up brethren, and some have noted that upside-down trees seem to feature ornaments more prominently since they hang freely into the air instead of into the tree.

Reaction on social media is mixed, with some users loving the apparent nod to 'Stranger Things,' others perplexed at the gravity-defying display of holiday cheer and still others taking the tree as a slight against a traditional Christmas.

I have a lot of questions. Why is Target selling an upside down Christmas tree? Why is it nearly $1000? Is this a Stranger Things joke that I’m missing? Someone help. pic.twitter.com/ZA33y1WKyC

Several national retailers like Target, Home Depot and Walmart are carrying inverted artificial trees for what appears to be the first time this year, and many models are already sold out or running low.

While they may be the flavor of the day on social media, upside-down trees are nothing new. In fact, they've been around for centuries in eastern Europe, where trees hung upside-down from the ceiling as far back as the fifteenth century, when the tree's triangular shape had a religious connotation representing the crucifixion.